Perspectives in gas—liquid reactions

Abstract

Gas—liquid reactions are of great industrial, biological, physiological, and ecological importance. This subject has acquired some maturity but there is still great scope for further investigations which are academically exciting and industrially relevant. There is a need to investigate some typical gas—liquid reactions under super—critical conditions. The beneficial effect of addition of another immiscible liquid, which shows relatively very high solubility for the solute gas, should be examined. The phase transfer catalysis in gas-liquid-liquid (or solid) should be studied. Gas-liquid reactions which occur in diffusion film in macromolecular systems need to be studied systematically. The desorption of a volatile intermediate product in fast/instantaneous gas—liquid reactions requires a careful study. The separation of acidic/basic mixtures by dissociation extraction in gas-liquid-liquid (or solid) system should be investigated. The role of solid particles smaller than diffusion film thickness in three phase reactions should be closely examined. Membrane processes are likely to be very attractive and there is a need to study facilitated transport and liquid membranes with industrially important systems. The role of micro-mixing in producing undesirable byproducts in mechanically agitated and gas sparged reactors has not received attention despite its importance. The simulation of large size absorber-reactors and desorber-reactors should be undertaken.